Monterey County agrees to pay $2.6 million in 'flash-bang' death of Greenfield man

Monterey County has agreed to pay $2.6million to the family of a Greenfield man who died in a house fire after sheriff's deputies threw a "flash-bang" grenade through his window.

The settlement was announced Monday by attorneys for the family of Rogelio "Roger" Serrato Jr. who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the wake of the 2011 incident.

County Counsel Charles McKee said the county's insurance carrier settled the lawsuit without admitting any wrongdoing.

Serrato's death, he said, was a "tragic, tragic event and we send our condolences to the family," he said. "We think it could have been avoided if people had heeded the directives from the officers to leave the house."

Armed with a search warrant, the sheriff's SWAT team surrounded Serrato's house in a military-style operation Jan. 5, 2011, while looking for suspects in a New Year's shooting that wounded three outside the Mucky Duck bar in downtown Monterey.

It was later determined Serrato, 31, was not involved in the shooting and was unarmed in the house. After hailing him for an hour, the family's attorneys said, deputies broke a front window and tossed in the grenade to flush him out.

The device ignited a sofa and fire quickly spread. Instead of trying to help Serrato, who was emitting "anguished cries" and breaking windows, SWAT team members retreated to the transport vehicle, pointed rifles toward the home and awaited the fire department, the suit said.

Initially delayed by a SWAT vehicle in the street, the fire department took more than 30 minutes to control the fire, it claimed. By then, a coroner's report concluded, Serrato was dead of asphyxiation, complicated by methamphetamine intoxication.

Oakland attorney Michael Haddad, who represented Serrato's then 1- and 2-year-old sons, said the use of force was "unnecessary and excessive." His clients will receive $1.375 million that will be placed in trust until they are 18. Each eventually will receive more than $1 million.

John Burris, also of Oakland, represented Serrato's mother, sisters and two older children. They collectively will receive $1.225 million to settle the claims against the county, Sheriff Scott Miller and the involved officers, Capt. Chuck Monarque, Cmdr. Kevin Oakley, Sgts. Garrett Sanders, Joseph Banuelos and Randy Ragsac, Detective Al Martinez and Deputy Mark Sievers.

The attorneys said some of those deputies attempted to extinguish the blaze but backed away when they saw Serrato standing inside his smoky living room wearing only his shorts and with nothing in his hands.

Evidence showed the officers had received training about the fire hazards of flash-bangs, including a video depicting such a device setting a couch ablaze during a practice raid, the attorneys said.

While Monterey County officials would never publicly acknowledge it, said Julia Sherwin, Haddad's co-counsel, "The large settlement represents (their) acknowledgement that the deputies in this case screwed up and they caused the fire that caused the death of Roger Serrato and his death was completely unnecessary."

McKee disagreed. The officers were told by a person who exited the house that no one else was left inside, then waited an hour before using the flash-bang to secure the property.

"They put their lives at stake in trying to secure the property and they should be commended for trying to resolve a very tense situation," he said.

Sherwin said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prevented attorneys from asking the court to order Monterey County to stop using the flash-bang devices until its deputies were properly trained. However, she said, the sheriff's office has since bought a "bang pole." A bang pole can be exploded outside a house or while it is suspended through a window, and can be withdrawn before a fire starts.

"If they had done so in this case, it would not have started a fire," she said.